The Threat Within

In many ways, this fight resembles the 2005 fight over Social Security. Once again, we have a bait and switch, an attempt to destroy a pillar of American society in the name of saving it. And then, too, you had Democrats
who were obviously itching to run up the white flag.

The difference now is that Democrats hold the White House. And that may prove to be their undoing.

In 2005, the de facto Democratic leader was Nancy Pelosi. And she never bought into either the crisis-mongering or the Beltway desire to prove oneself “serious” by courageously agreeing to hurt ordinary
Americans to make the nation safe for high-end tax cuts. She maintained a steely resolve: this privatization shall not pass.

Pelosi is still there. But Barack Obama is now the party’s leader. And let’s be frank: Obama still, after all that has happened, seems devoted to the dream of transcending partisanship, a dream he tries
to serve by being nice to Republican ideas no matter how terrible those ideas are. (I did warn about this during the primaries — just saying.)

The great danger now is that Obama — with the help of a fair number of Senate Democrats — will kill Medicare in the name of civility and outreach.

This doesn’t have to happen. Republicans have, in fact, offered Democrats a huge political opportunity — much as Bush did in 2005. But I’m sorry, I have no confidence in the current leadership’s
willingness to do the right thing, even when it’s also politically smart.